Cleveland Museum of Art

Fragment

Date

900s–1000s

Medium

Silk and gold: compound twill, brocaded

Culture

Byzantium

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The design of this textile offers an interesting iconographic puzzle. The double-headed eagle was a common motif in the art of the Near East in ancient times and from there seems to have found its way into Byzantine and European art. The animal tail ending in an animal's head is also found in Near Eastern art and is particularly noted in textiles of the Seljuk period (1000s–1100s) in Persia. However, the division of the roundel frame into two halves ending in animal heads is not known in the art of the Near East nor is the continuous knot motif which occurs just behind the animal head of the frames. Both of these motifs are familiar in the art of the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Scandinavian peoples of Europe. The entire pattern is in gold thread, except for such minor details as claws and eyes which are in golden tan silk on a rose-red ground.

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